Here at the RiverRest we get our food from basically three sources.
- We have a garden where we grow organic vegetables and fruits. We raise chickens and ducks for meat and eggs.
- What we don’t raise ourselves we either do without it or get from local farms or organic grocery stores.
- We forage for native foods that grow in the wild. While we don’t hunt, we do fish.
We are enthusiastic Localvores. Last nights’ supper was entirely home grown & caught. The menu included fresh trout and bass from the creek, homegrown potatoes, okra and delicata squash. What a great meal and all as local as you can get!
The other night I came home to find Charley and Anthony getting the evening meal ready. When I asked “What’s for supper?” Anthony replied “Chicken!”. I have to tell you this, normally when we decide to have chicken it is discussed a couple of days ahead. We don’t take killing our chickens lightly and since we had none in the freezer I was a bit puzzled.
I looked over at the stove and saw not chicken but , Chicken of the Woods. Also known as Sulfur Shelf, this chickeny fungi is one of the “Foolproof Four”(the four most easily recognized of the edible mushrooms). I picked one up & tasted it. Wow, it did taste like chicken! It even had the same texture as chicken.
Chicken of the Woods is usually found in the late summer or early fall. It grows on decaying trees or on the wounds of living trees. The top of this mushroom is bright orange. The underside has tiny spores instead of gills.
Sauteed in butter, the chicken of the woods we had that night were delicious. Those that we did not cook Anthony dried for later use.
Remember, safety first. You should always be sure of the identity of what you are going to eat and always cook wild edible mushrooms. For more information on Sulfur Shelf and other wild edible mushrooms try Mushroom-Collecting.com.